Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander loses seat to 20-year-old SNP student

Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander has lost his seat to a 20-year-old SNP student.

Mhairi Black, who took the majority in Paisley and South Renfrewshire, will be the youngest MP to take a seat in Westminster since the 17th century.

There were cheers and applause from the crowd as the result was announced.

Black unseated the shadow foreign secretary in Paisley and Renfrewshire South, winning 23,548 votes with a massive 27% swing.

Mr Alexander, who had held the seat since 1997 and had a majority of more than 16,000, picked up 17,864 votes.

He described it as a "very difficult night" for Labour.

Mhairi, who is in her final year at Glasgow University, said: "I hope [Douglas Alexander] will remain in politics once he's recovered from this result".

The politics student added: "The people of Scotland are speaking and it's time for their voice to be heard at Westminster.

"I make this promise...that is exactly what I plan to do."

She added: "I think it's truly because people have awakened to the fact this Westminster establishment has not been serving them and the Labour party in Scotland has not been serving them, and they must've felt that Douglas Alexander wasn't serving them.

"What people are looking for is that change, an end to austerity and the SNP were the only ones offering that.

"People are not interested in aesthetic things like age and gender, they're interested in the quality of the argument and I think the SNP is proving tonight that we provided those high quality arguments."

"It highlighted that they couldn't challenge us on policy and that's what people were responding to, people are looking for politics to move forward and to be about people rather than politicians' sparring matches."

She was also asked about her comments on a second referendum, saying: "This election, we have continually said is not about independence, it's about making sure the Westminster establishment works to the best it possibly can for Scotland."

Thanking voters, his family and his campaign team for their support, outgoing Alexander said: "This of course has been a very difficult night for Labour. Scotland has chosen to oppose this con gov but not place that trust in the Labour party

"It will be our responsibility to re-win that trust in the months and years ahead."